1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to vertically aligned liquid crystal devices and a technique for reducing disturbance in the alignment of liquid crystal molecules in a display section.
2. Related Art
Vertically aligned liquid crystal devices in which an alignment of liquid-crystal molecules is controlled to reduce dependency on a viewing angle and increase a viewing angle range are known. In a typical vertically aligned liquid crystal device, liquid crystal having a negative dielectric anisotropy is used. When no voltage is applied between a device substrate and an opposing substrate, liquid crystal molecules are aligned vertically with respect to the substrates. Thin film transistors (TFT) and thin film diodes (TFD) are provided on the device substrate as switching devices, and pixel electrodes which each includes a plurality of substantially circular or polygonal sub-pixel electrodes are also formed on the device substrate. In addition, slits or protrusions (projections) are formed on the opposing substrate at positions corresponding to substantially central areas of the sub-pixel electrodes. When a voltage is applied between the device substrate and the opposing substrate, an electric field corresponding to the voltage is generated in a liquid-crystal layer between the substrates. Since the sub-pixel electrodes are substantially circular or polygonal and slits or protrusions are formed on the opposing substrate, the liquid crystal molecules are aligned radially around the substantially central areas of the sub-pixel electrodes. Therefore, the dependency on the viewing angle is reduced and the viewing angle range is increased. An example of a vertically aligned liquid crystal device is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-43525.